Mental health isn't bound by age, colour or creed. It is essential to the human experience and yet it’s something we continue to ignore thinking mental illness won’t get us, it belongs to someone else, or it’s something for someone else to deal with.
But anyone can struggle with mental health. Austerity and the wider population being hit by an era of cuts and uncertainty, has seen mental health plummet. At the start of Covid-19, mental health also took a tumble. Mental health issues are genetic, the environment plays its part, so you see no one is free of mental health issues.
But mental health is largely being ignored because people either genuinely struggle or can't always be bothered to deal with it. We saw this in Covid-19 as soon as lockdown finished. People were desperate to get back into their lives as quickly as possible. But the irony is, mental health never leaves, issues reside in all of us, sometimes below the surface, sometimes they come to the surface, but they never go.
Like disability, mental health also carries a stigma. If you’re a celebrity, everyone knows when you have mental health issues. Prince Harry makes the headlines because he deals with mental health. But perhaps the problem with mental health is there is no acknowledgement or acceptance that we deal with mental health issues.
Now is exactly the right time we should be talking about and dealing with mental health. But like the ‘elephant in the room’ no one talks about mental health. They know it’s there, you may know someone who presents and deals with mental health issues, but for those dealing with mental health issues, they are very much on their own.
I write and I continue to write about mental health. My blogs if you take time to read them, can make a difference and bring understanding and acceptance. When you deal with your mental health that can happen. A healthy mind, equals a healthy life, equals a healthy lifestyle, equals healthy living and good mental health.
Mental wellbeing is the foundation of a healthy lifestyle. It affects everything—how we work, how we love, how we live. That’s why we can’t afford to keep ignoring it.
My books dive deeper into these issues, offering stories, strategies, and support. If you're ready to deal with your mental health or want to understand it better, they’re available through my website.
Let’s stop ignoring the conversation. Let’s start healing.
